upper chain tensioner replacement?? ..arghh
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
upper chain tensioner replacement?? ..arghh
hey all,
alright, the situation is this...
my car was making a sort of clanging/rattling noise from the left head (firewall side) only during acceleration, more so at low rpm. so before i went getting dirty and removing the neccesary parts i took a real good look and listen, and im positive its coming from the timing chain area for the left head.
as of rightnow i have the upper timing chain cover off, and there is play in the chain, and the tensioner isnt tightening the chain.. so since its hydraulic, and i have had the car not running for a week, is this the reason the tensioner is backed off??
i also took the right timing cover off, and its chain was tight...
so is the left upper chain tensioner causing my loose chain, or did i just loose pressure from the week the car sat in the garage??
any help greatly appreciated..
Mark
alright, the situation is this...
my car was making a sort of clanging/rattling noise from the left head (firewall side) only during acceleration, more so at low rpm. so before i went getting dirty and removing the neccesary parts i took a real good look and listen, and im positive its coming from the timing chain area for the left head.
as of rightnow i have the upper timing chain cover off, and there is play in the chain, and the tensioner isnt tightening the chain.. so since its hydraulic, and i have had the car not running for a week, is this the reason the tensioner is backed off??
i also took the right timing cover off, and its chain was tight...
so is the left upper chain tensioner causing my loose chain, or did i just loose pressure from the week the car sat in the garage??
any help greatly appreciated..
Mark
#3
Originally Posted by 1994 se lover
hey all, alright, the situation is this... my car was making a sort of clanging/rattling noise from the left head (firewall side) only during acceleration, more so at low rpm. so before i went getting dirty and removing the neccesary parts i took a real good look and listen, and im positive its coming from the timing chain area for the left head. as of rightnow i have the upper timing chain cover off, and there is play in the chain, and the tensioner isnt tightening the chain.. so since its hydraulic, and i have had the car not running for a week, is this the reason the tensioner is backed off??
i also took the right timing cover off, and its chain was tight... so is the left upper chain tensioner causing my loose chain, or did i just loose pressure from the week the car sat in the garage?? any help greatly appreciated.. Mark
i also took the right timing cover off, and its chain was tight... so is the left upper chain tensioner causing my loose chain, or did i just loose pressure from the week the car sat in the garage?? any help greatly appreciated.. Mark
Why one uuper chain is tighter than the other, I don't know. One of you hyd tensioners could be sticking in the tension/tight position which is causing the upper chain to remain tight even after the engine is off. If there's a plus side it's better than being stuck in the loose/slack position.
I don't know how many miles you have on your engine, but when I had my chains (3) tensioners (2) and guides (many) off at 113K I was pleasantly surprise on how good they looked. At that point I knew I had many, many more miles to go before they go bad, with proper maintenance of course.
MIKE
#4
hey mark,
funny thing....when i got my max, it was making the same noise as well. turns out the tensioner had failed/was failing. $36 like Bryan (am I right, interwebautosalesparts-guy ) plus overnight shipping and $150 in labor and i was on the road happy again. It was also the same one you're talking about..top, left rearmost if i remember correctly. The chain was also loose at the top but tight below. I can look up more details if you want. Overall, I don't think it's a "major" deal especially since you've got the timing chain cover off. If you have an fsm, you're groovy. Also check out jerryromenissan.com and go to their parts department. Locate the tensioner and you will find lots of diagrams there that would prove helpful. Good Luck getting her on the road real soon and let's know how it goes!
Oh and Mike (Candiman) the chains would most likely be fine, but believe me when I say even if you have never heard vtcs, you will definitely know that this is the chain slapping against the valve cover. It is that loud, obvious and not usually constant. And did you notice we have the same amt of posts!! freaky!!
funny thing....when i got my max, it was making the same noise as well. turns out the tensioner had failed/was failing. $36 like Bryan (am I right, interwebautosalesparts-guy ) plus overnight shipping and $150 in labor and i was on the road happy again. It was also the same one you're talking about..top, left rearmost if i remember correctly. The chain was also loose at the top but tight below. I can look up more details if you want. Overall, I don't think it's a "major" deal especially since you've got the timing chain cover off. If you have an fsm, you're groovy. Also check out jerryromenissan.com and go to their parts department. Locate the tensioner and you will find lots of diagrams there that would prove helpful. Good Luck getting her on the road real soon and let's know how it goes!
Oh and Mike (Candiman) the chains would most likely be fine, but believe me when I say even if you have never heard vtcs, you will definitely know that this is the chain slapping against the valve cover. It is that loud, obvious and not usually constant. And did you notice we have the same amt of posts!! freaky!!
#5
Guest
Posts: n/a
thanks guys, youve been a great help.
the noise is drastically different than the VTC's, thats fo'sure.. i didnt know what was wrong when the noise started, but i knew it wasnt good. and if i could have explained the noise a little better, everyone would understand what were talking about..sorry..
ill post back for the outcome..
thanks again.
Mark
the noise is drastically different than the VTC's, thats fo'sure.. i didnt know what was wrong when the noise started, but i knew it wasnt good. and if i could have explained the noise a little better, everyone would understand what were talking about..sorry..
ill post back for the outcome..
thanks again.
Mark
#6
in either case, the timing chain definitely shouldn't have slack in it.. if it does, that means the cams are not aligned properly. probably won't cause damage, but it's definitely not helping in power having the valves opening and closing at the wrong times.
when I was tearing my heads down, I did notice that if I removed the tension and turned the engine, the cams on either head would jump a little bit as the intake cam lobes were on the downhill side... it would snap forward about 10 degrees and leave about 1 tooth worth of slack in the chain between the intake and exhaust cams.
when I was tearing my heads down, I did notice that if I removed the tension and turned the engine, the cams on either head would jump a little bit as the intake cam lobes were on the downhill side... it would snap forward about 10 degrees and leave about 1 tooth worth of slack in the chain between the intake and exhaust cams.
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
yeah, i hear what your saying matt...i was defenetily losing some power from the condition.... and the slack has probably been there way before the noise ,as the tensioner most likely slowly lost pressure, thus slowly giving up slack...im anxious to get my car back after the repairs...
thanks for the input...
thanks for the input...
Originally Posted by Matt93SE
in either case, the timing chain definitely shouldn't have slack in it.. if it does, that means the cams are not aligned properly. probably won't cause damage, but it's definitely not helping in power having the valves opening and closing at the wrong times.
when I was tearing my heads down, I did notice that if I removed the tension and turned the engine, the cams on either head would jump a little bit as the intake cam lobes were on the downhill side... it would snap forward about 10 degrees and leave about 1 tooth worth of slack in the chain between the intake and exhaust cams.
when I was tearing my heads down, I did notice that if I removed the tension and turned the engine, the cams on either head would jump a little bit as the intake cam lobes were on the downhill side... it would snap forward about 10 degrees and leave about 1 tooth worth of slack in the chain between the intake and exhaust cams.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
vingodine
5th Generation Classifieds (2000-2003)
45
05-21-2016 12:46 PM